YSI Speak Out Tour 2023: Top Tips For YSI Guides

Are you a YSI Guide who is currently preparing their Team for their YSI Speak Out in March? This article is for you! We asked two of our wonderful YSI Guides, Sinéad and Kelly to share their tips on how to guide your YSI Team as they are preparing and practicing their #SpeakOuts

Sinéad and Kelly are both teachers from Collinstown Community College and are based in Clondalkin, Dublin. You may know them from their brilliant Instagram page @theteachinggirlys, which shares tips and information about teaching and working with students. 

They are Young Social Innovators guides with their students and have participated in YSI in recent years. 

In the lead-up to the Speak Out Tour 2023, which starts on 06 March, we asked Sinéad and Kelly for their essential tips from their perspectives as teachers taking part and guiding YSI teams on their journey. Scroll down to see the answers to the most pressing questions about the #YSISpeakOut prep!

How do your team decide on their Speak Out?

Our team decided on their Speak Out through looking at past projects on YouTube and the YSI website. They got inspiration from these to create their own display and presentation for the Speak Out.

How do you keep your team motivated while at the same time ensuring that their Speak Out is 100% youth-led?

We keep our team motivated by constantly encouraging them about their project and give them little goals for each YSI class. Our project was featured in our local newspaper so that really helped encourage them even more!

What do you feel your team gains from the Speak Outs?

We think our team will really benefit from seeing other schools and how they have approached their projects! I think it will also help our team to receive constructive feedback about their project!

What are the key benefits of taking part in YSI, in your opinion?

Students become much more independent and learn to build on their own initiative. We definitely think that students can take the skills they learn in YSI when the go on to LC or LCA!

What are the biggest challenges to taking part in a Speak Out?

We find that our students are lacking in confidence when speaking in front of other peers. Participating in the speak out allows them to build on to this skill that will help them greatly when it comes to do orals and projects in LC and LCA

What is your top tip for taking part in a Speak out?

We would say just to enjoy the whole day out and build relationships with your students, talk to other schools about their project and network with other YSI leaders!

There you have it! Top tips from teacher influencers and YSI guides Sinéad and Kelly! See you on tour!